Fan the Flames of Your Happiness
by Amaryllis D. Namikaze
Summary: It was a very normal day on Moby Dick – until Marco found a little girl on the deck. Soon enough, the Whitebeard pirates find themselves getting crazy and Ace – well, Ace couldn't be happier to see his baby sister. /ZoLu, DifferentDevilFruit!Luffy Fem!Luffy
1. Prologue

**Warning: **different devil fruit, female Luffy, sometimes out of character acting, mild-violence, spoilers.

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, though **_**that **_**is obvious.**

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**Prologue**

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**I**t was a very normal day on Moby Dick – until Marco found a little girl on the deck.

She was small and young, around eleven or twelve years old. She was lying down as if sleeping peacefully while her hair was used as a black pillow. Her clothes were full of holes and dirt, and so was her body. There was scar under her left eye.

Marco crouched down beside her, checking for a pulse and normal breathing – everything appeared to be okay, though there were minor scratches and blood in her hands. The blond noticed a straw hat with a red ribbon innocently lying a little over said girl's head.

"Hey, Thatch," he called the 4th Division Commander, who was nearby. "Do you know her?"

By now a lot of crewmembers had come closer, full of curiosity. A kid wasn't a common sight on the ship – Pops rarely recruited people younger than twenty; Ace, one of the younger members, was this age (though his maturity was questionable most of the time, according to Marco).

"Never saw such a cutie in my whole life," Thatch answered, taking a good look at the small girl. She frowned briefly and went back to deep sleep.

"Goddamnit, Thatch – she's a kid, keep your _claws _to yourself."

Marco smirked while some laughed at Thatch's incredulous expression.

The 4th commander fumed, "I didn't mean it like that and you know it, shitty phoenix!"'

"What's the ruckus?" Portgas D. Ace had arrived. He looked amusedly at his best friends, before glancing at the small body sleeping on the deck. He did a double take, "LU?"

Marco and Thatch stopped – well, the latter stopped shouting, the former had remained smirking at the whole thing. Vista came closer.

"You know her, Ace?"

But Ace took a minute to answer, because he kneeled beside her and started checking her injuries. After it done, he finally looked up with still surprised eyes.

"Yeah – she's my little sister."

Marco observed how his bratty friend looked at this small kid. His eyes were usually full of mischief, but now there was only love and worry – how unexpected from someone like him. Ace had been sort of moody since Pops had ordered him to come back from Blackbeard's search. He had been angry from not completing his _duty _– as he called it – but didn't object their father's decision. That had been weeks ago and Ace still hadn't gotten over it. Marco wondered if he should tell him that Pops had ordered it just because Redhead Shanks suggested it – well, no need to put salt in the wound.

Ace was still trying to wake up his sister. The girl moaned softly, hearing murmurs around her. She blinked owlishly, feeling dizzy. Her huge hazel eyes wandered around, searching from a friendly face until stopping at Ace's, and widening. She grabbed the 2nd commander arm with incredible despair.

"Onii-chan! They, they – I, I was – we were and then – he came – I was so – help – _Ace-nii!"_

Naturally, nobody understood anything. The girl had spoken so fast and breathlessly that her words came out together and incomprehensible. Ace caressed the girl – what had he called her? Lu? – and asked with a soft voice that no one knew he possessed, "Calm down, Lu. Tell me what happened again."

'Lu' was panting and shaking uncontrollably.

"We were at the Sabaody Archipelago when a bear-man found us! He sent all my nakama away!"

Ace's eyes widened – and though it only made complete sense to him, everyone listening to it also felt sorry for the girl. They could all imagine how horrible it would be to have their nakama sent away.

"Bear-man?"

Lu nodded, her eyes becoming full of tears.

"I think he was called 'Kuma'. And there was also a weird man that was made of light."

"Light?" Ace could think of only one person and he prayed it was not this one.

"Hai. He was tall and used marine's clothes. Rayleigh-jii-san stayed to fight against him and we got separated when this Kuma touched each one of my nakama and made them simply… _poof_," Lu made motions with her hands, all the while trying not to cry.

_Kizaru_, Marco thought, but chose to stay quiet – telling the little girl who had caused her pain wouldn't do any good.

Ace wasted no time observing his sister's trembling form: he hugged her against his chest and rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, murmuring softly. Marco shooed the observers away – the last thing they needed was to see someone breaking down in front of them – and let Thatch and Vista stay.

"Onii-chan, I couldn't do anything!" The small girl cried. "They were right in front of me and I couldn't _do anything!"_

"Everything will be fine, Luffy, shh, shh. You were thrown away by this Kuma guy, right?" She nodded and Ace continued, "So your nakamas must have been sent to – just to a different place."

It was the right thing to say: she stopped crying, though sobs could still be heard. Luffy – so _that _was her name – rubbed her eyes with tiny closed fists.

"Where are we? I need to go back to Sabaody."

"Oh, of course, we… - _What?_ Are you out of your mind, Luffy? This light man was an Admiral - Kizaru! What if you go back and he's still there? I won't let you!"

Luffy narrowed her eyes. For a moment, she looked like an angry animal.

"_Won't let me? _I don't recall asking for your permission, Ace."

Marco, Thatch and Vista winced. It was never a good thing when there was no suffix added. And Ace himself wasn't the calmest person around.

Said person narrowed his eyes, "That's 'cause you don't need to ask, I can simply not give permission if I want it this way. I'm your older brother; it's my duty to take care of you."

Luffy started to get up from his lap, only to fall back again when her legs wobbled. She sighed deeply and put her straw hat over her eyes. Soon enough, she was sobbing.

Ace put one hand in the back of her head (that was small enough to have it covered) and brought her frame closer to him. He really hated being so mean to his sister, but there was no way he'd let her go back to Sabaody if Kizaru was there.

Speaking of which…

"Tell me, Lu, why was Kizaru there?"

The small preteen sniffed a few times and brought her head up. Her eyes were a little red, but beside that there was no sign of earlier crying.

"I punched a Tenryuubito."

The four Whitebeard pirates did a double take, "WHAT?"

Luffy looked at them with curiosity, "Is it _that _bad?"

Ace lightly hit the top of her head.

"Baka! You can't punch a Celestial Dragon – are you crazy? You practically declared war to them!"

Luffy pouted, crossing her small arms over her chest.

"You're so mean, Onii-chan!"

Ace sighed once, and even though it was exasperatedly, Marco could see that there was fondness in it. He absolutely loved his baby sister.

Thatch was curious, "Say, what was a little girl like you doing in Sabaody?"

Luffy looked at him as if he was stupid.

"I was waiting for my ship to get coated, of course. My crew and I were heading to the Red Line."

Ace laughed at their faces.

"_Your ship?"_

_ "Your crew?"_

_ "Red Line?"_

Thatch appeared to be freaking out after asking about the crew, "But you, you, you – you're, like, twelve! How can you be a pirate captain?"

Ace and Luffy had the same expression while looking at the man. The kind of expression that asked "Are you stupid?".

"Dude, didn't I tell you that my sister was seventeen?" The former questioned, but it made nothing to get Thatch calm.

"When you said this you also didn't tell us that she looked like a kid!"

"I'm not a kid," Luffy protested. "Just 'cause I don't have boobs it doesn't mean I'm not seventeen."

Marco rolled his eyes. Of course Ace, the idiot, would teach to his sister such a horrible vocabulary. Well, horrible to a girl and someone young.

"But it's a fair point," Vista commented, "How can you look like so…-"

His question died in his lips as a pair of ears and a fluffy tail appeared on top of the girl's head and under her shirt, respectively. They were black and white-tipped, twitching from time to time, and so was the tail.

Luffy titled her head sideways, looking like a cute puppy.

"Say," she addressed her brother, not bothered by the others' reaction, "Is there meat here?"


	2. Fluttering Flame

**Warning**: DifferentDevilFruit!Luffy, Fem!Luffy, mild-violence scenes, spoilers, sometimes out of character acting.

**I don't own One Piece and blah, blah, blah. No surprise about this fact.**

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**Chapter 2: Fluttering Flame**

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"Ne, nii-chan, you're crewmates are weird," Luffy commented at some point of the dinner time.

The Whitebeard pirates weren't eating and talking a lot – as it usually would be – but observing as a child ate with them, calling their 2nd Commander her older brother. Well, they _had _heard about his baby sister – enough to make their ears bleed – but never thought she'd be so… young.

Or have animal ears.

Nor a tail.

Yeah, you can get the idea.

"Say, why do you have a tail and ears?" Thatch asked with curiosity.

Luffy blinked. She thought that this man was the weirdest of this bunch, because his right eye couldn't stop twitching every time he looked at her, which made no sense, since the small girl was sure she was as normal as her brother.

(Poor little Luffy never imagined that her brother was a bigger monster).

Luffy blinked owlishly once again.

"Doesn't every human have?"

"Huh?"

"Ears – doesn't every human have ears?"

The crew laughed, but no one as loud as Whitebeard himself. He was sitting at the table where all commanders sat and was absolutely delighted to meet Ace's famous little sister – not because she was a pirate, but because said commander _never _stopped talking about her. Whitebeard felt as if he already knew the brat.

"He meant your fox ears and tail, Lu," Ace said, chewing his meat as his sister sat by his side looking like a female version of him. Both appeared to be bottomless pits when concerning their stomachs.

"Oh, why didn't he say so? I ate the Kitsune Kitsune no Mi."

"Fox Fox, huh?" Marco questioned. "I suspected your tail wasn't of a cat," he said, eyeing said tail, which was too fluffy to be of said animal. It moved once in a while.

"Zoan type? Marco here is also one," Haruta said, indicating the first commander with his head. "He can transform into a phoenix. It's pretty cool."

Ace stopped eating for a moment as his sister did not.

"What?" The small girl asked, her voice muffled by the meat in her mouth.

"Won't you say something about it? About Marco being a Zoan type like you?"

"… Should I?"

Ace sweat-dropped, "You used to be more cheerful."

"I'm eating, Ace-nii. I'm hungry."

"If you say so."

And they both went back to devouring with gusto their food. As it was said, Thatch's right eye couldn't stop twitching.

* * *

Two days later, it was possible to find Ace, Luffy, Marco and other commanders relaxing on the deck after a day of work. The small kitsune had been sleeping in Ace's room for most part of the day after her brother had taken a good look at her injuries. Luffy thought about protesting, but was too tired and simply stayed in bed with no complains.

Still covered in bandages, she had managed to convince her brother that she was okay enough to stay on deck with him.

"Ne, Onii-chan, I _bo-ored_," she sing-sang. Luffy's clothes had been too destroyed to be used again and one of the nurses had made a new one. The small girl wasn't bothered by the shorts, but her pink T-shirt was ugly, because, well, it was pink. Luffy liked red, yellow and blue. Pink was _ew!_

"Go play," Ace suggested, observing the clouds in the sky while laying down beside Marco.

"But you're here!"

"So?"

Luffy pouted, "You're so mean. I want to spend time with you, baka."

Ace sat up. He smiled widely and made Luffy sit on his lap.

"Alright, story time! Tell about your adventures until now."

Thatch, Marco, Vista, Haruta and Izou also sat, paying attention to the small girl. If there was one thing they had learnt these two days was that she was funny as hell. A brat like her brother, but a funny brat – Ace was just a troublesome brat.

"Well, what do you want me to say? You already saw me in Alabasta."

Marco was surprised. Ace had really gone far while searching for Teach.

Said commander rolled his eyes, putting his chin over Luffy's head and passing his arms around her waist.

"Alright – tell me about you're nakamas."

Luffy smiled as wide as her brother had and it was identical.

"There is Brook, my musician! He's a living skeleton and it's so _cool!_"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Thatch made, "A living _skeleton_?"

"Uh-huh. He ate an Akuma no Mi before he died that brought him back." Luffy bangs and hat covered her eyes. "He spent fifty years alone before we found him."

The Whitebeard commanders stayed silent for a moment, knowing how difficult it was to be alone. It must have been fifty years of hell.

Luffy suddenly smiled, but more softly than before. Marco noticed that her eyes were lighter than Ace's pitch black ones, being of a hazel color, and also much bigger. The scar under her left eye only made her cute.

"My shipwright, Franky, is cyborg and we found him in Water 7. Can you believe that his teacher was the one who built Oro Jackson?"

Haruta laughed, "Cool, I wish I could have met him!"

Ace snorted.

"I bet both of them were shocked when they saw your tail for the first time," he smirked as if it was a joke. "I _certainly _was."

Luffy giggled and the sound appeared to be carried all over the deck. It was delightful.

"All of them were! Shihihihihi! Usopp fell in the ocean the first time and Nami fainted – it was _so _funny."

"Who are they?" Vista asked, since the girl hadn't finished telling them about her nakama.

Luffy blinked and smiled lopsidedly.

"Usopp is the sharpshooter and is always telling stories, though some of them aren't true…" She placed her finger on her lips, thoughtful.

Ace made a face behind her head. From what he had seen, Usopp's stories were complete lies. Figures Luffy wouldn't notice it.

"And Nami is my navigator. She loves money and tangerine," Luffy added, even though no one could think why this information would matter. "There's Sanji, the cooker. He fights using only his legs and dances funny, like spaghetti."

The commanders tried not to laugh as they saw Ace mouth "_womanizer"_ behind his baby sister.

"There's also Chopper – he is a talking reindeer and _sooo _cute!"

"Oh, the small guy is fine?" It sounded like a question, but Ace didn't care. He was smiling. "He was a cool lad."

Luffy was still beaming.

"There's Robin. She can create human limbs on whichever surface she wants to!"

"Wait, Robin as in _Nico Robin_?" Izou said tentatively. As the black-haired girl nodded, he whistled. "Well, that's a good crew you've got there."

Luffy looked at him as if the commander was an idiot.

"Of course they are a good crew – why would a gather a bad one?"

They laughed at Izou's expression.

"Ne, Lu," Ace started. His eyes were serious, which made his face different from what the others commanders were used to see. "I know you won't like it, but I think you should stay here."

Luffy stayed quiet. She did not get up from her brother's lap, but also did not acknowledge his presence. Her hair softly swayed with the wind and fell heavily against her back with her straw hat.

"I'm sure that, wherever they are, my crew is trying to come back to Archipelago Sabaody. We have deadline to this: three days. But I'm not _that _stupid, and it's simply impossible to reach the island if you're too far away. But I want to find them again."

She looked up and, for a brief moment, the commanders believed that she was a seventeen year old girl in a pre-teen body. Her eyes felt too ancient to be of a child's.

"Zoro, I'm certain, is trying to do impossible to come back and reunite with everybody."

Luffy smiled and closed her eyes, though they could see tears gathering in her eyes.

"Tch… Silly Zoro," her voice failed through a sob. "Silly first-crewmate… silly nakama… They should know by now that I'm not that strong… to protect them all…"

Luffy turned her back to the others and let her forehead rest against her brother's chest. She could hear his heartbeat and feel his breath on top of her head. He let his arms snake around her waist and bring her closer.

Ace said nothing. He couldn't bring himself to say "It's not your fault" or "Everything will be alright", because it was a lie. When something bad happened to the crew, it was the captain's fault. And the fire user couldn't guarantee that all things would fall into place themselves.

So, quiet he stayed.

Luffy was as silent as her brother in terms of speaking. Her arms and legs were bandaged, but these weren't the wounds hurting. The only sounds heard on the deck were Luffy's sobs.


End file.
